A new study highlights the challenges of accessing essential medicines in the South Pacific, with lower-middle-income countries facing the lowest availability (59.1% public, 57.4% private) and significant affordability barriers. While upper-middle and high-income countries show better access, medicine prices remain high across the region. Urgent policy reforms and strategic initiatives are needed to address these ...
New Insights on the WHO-Listed Authority (WLA) Framework! The WHO has introduced an evidence-based, transparent framework to strengthen regulatory reliance and improve access to quality-assured medical products worldwide. The study highlights the WLA framework’s role in promoting regulatory standards across diverse regions, supporting the Sustainable Development Goals for global health. By enhancing collaboration between regulatory authorities, ...
Exciting news from the Global Pharma Health Fund! They’ve released a new low-cost Minilab test that detects toxic antifreeze agents like diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in children’s cough syrups. This portable tool, especially crucial for regions lacking advanced labs, now includes protocols to safeguard against these harmful contaminants. Available for free in multiple languages, ...
Do you want to become a GSDP Auditor and help importers, wholesalers, and national supply agencies ensure product quality? QUAMED Learning presents the first-ever eLearning course for pharmaceutical professionals that focuses on developing skills needed by a GSDP auditor. The course is funded by the Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs of USAID and is ‘FREE’ for ...
The East African Community (EAC) has long faced challenges ensuring access to affordable, quality medicines. Since 2005, EAC Partner States have been working on an inter-country pooled procurement mechanism to address these issues, but progress has been slow. This study explores the evolution of this mechanism, highlighting two key stages: the initial promise stage, marked ...
The second day of the 2024 QUAMED General Assembly was opened by Joanna Darmanin from DG ECHO and Dirk Brems from DGD. We were happy to hear about their continuing commitment to equitable access to quality medicines. DGD has been instrumental in the conception and development of QUAMED as a network and as an association. ...
We are delighted to announce that QUAMED has signed a contract with Relief International to run an exciting 4-year project: “Improving Access to Quality Medicines and Medical Supplies in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries”. The project will focus on building the capacity of 20 local medical product suppliers across Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, and Syria. Following market ...
Excited to share a new analytical framework for evaluating access to medicines from a health systems perspective! Developed from a study on childhood oncology medicines in South Africa, this framework focuses on eight key pharmaceutical processes to identify barriers and facilitators to access. Targeting national processes guides effective policy development to improve healthcare outcomes. #HealthSystems ...
A recent study assessed access to mifepristone, misoprostol, and contraceptive medicines in eight Eastern Mediterranean countries, highlighting significant gaps. Despite their critical role in reducing maternal mortality, most countries did not include all WHO essential contraceptives in national guidelines. Only Lebanon and Pakistan had comprehensive family planning guidelines, and only Afghanistan and Lebanon included mifepristone ...
This study examined 260 samples of 13 essential medicines in Enugu and Anambra, Nigeria, revealing that 25.4% did not meet USP 42 standards. Dexamethasone tablets had a 95% failure rate, and noncommunicable disease drugs showed higher non-compliance (21.2%) than anti-infectives (17.6%). OOS rates were similar between licensed vendors (25.2%) and market vendors (25.5%), with only ...
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